Some of outback South Australia bears a striking resemblance to the rugged and harsh terrain of Afghanistan.

By the end of the year, this northern region will host Australia's biggest military training ground, as the Defence Department has been acquiring pastoral properties.

But a seven-generation farming family is refusing to give up its land at Pandurra Station without a fight.

Christie Spargo says her family's property about 40 kilometres west of Port Augusta on the Eyre Highway runs mainly sheep and is one of six pastoral leases being acquired by the Federal Government to expand its Cultana training area four-fold, to 209,000 hectares.

Shearing is a big job on the station and it also runs a TAFE school to teach young shearers.

Some pastoralists will have to de-stock all their land, but Mrs Spargo says only part of the Nutt family property will be lost.

"We will be running quite a considerable amount less of sheep, so we're going to be running at probably about 6,000 to 8,000 head less, just by losing that side of the road," she said, pointing to land in the distance.

"Over that side of the road we have our ram paddocks. So rams are something you've got to keep contained well. So we're losing that paddock so we need to actually create another paddock or lose a paddock somewhere else."

The training area between Port Augusta and Whyalla will be used for air, ground and ship-to-shore activities, using armoured vehicles, military helicopters and special forces.

Julie Nutt said the live firing range would be five kilometres from the homestead.

"At the moment Cultana is 30 kilometres from the retreat. During their live firing and bombing at Cultana, the saucepans on our stainless steel bench in the kitchen actually rattle 'til they drop off the bench and they bounce along the floor," she said.

Defence has been negotiating compensation with leaseholders as pastoralists get ready to de-stock.

Most properties have now been acquired but the Nutts are refusing to sell and their lease does not run out for another 30 years.

Mrs Nutt says the land is rich in history and the tourism side of their business will become unviable.

"It's a business that we've been building up for 20 years. We've got five children and two little grandchildren ... We've got seven generations of the family that live, work, are part of the business - both businesses, the property as well as the tourism," she said.

"We just want to keep it in the family, keep it going. We would never sell Pandurra. It's never been for sale."

You have your house and your business and your family's past, present and future tied up in that block of land and someone comes along and says 'I'm going to take this land from you' and then they walk away. They don't tell you when or for how much

Bruce Nutt

Julie Nutt's husband Bruce said it had been a hard fight.

"It's been fairly horrific. There has been so much correspondence, so many times that I've asked for direction. It's all been unanswered," he said.

"I've made offers of other properties to the Defence Department because it's just horrific for us to sell, to have to lose this land.

"All the lawyers in the world won't [help], well they haven't got the heritage that we've got so they're not going to fight the way we will."

Mr Nutt said losing about 20 per cent of their land would equate to half the business profits, given the type of land to be lost.

"You have your house and your business and your family's past, present and future tied up in that block of land and someone comes along and says 'I'm going to take this land from you' and then they walk away. They don't tell you when or for how much," he said.

"I can still remember my father saying to me that if you ever get into trouble Pandurra is the last thing you ever sell and we stuck by that motto. It would be the last thing we'd ever sell."

The acquisition is expected to be finalised by the end of the year.

Whyalla Council also is opposed to the defence expansion, saying it will lose prime industrial land without being compensated, but that now seems inevitable.